Recently Activision released a starter pack version of their latest title, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, to the Steam store for $14.99. In Steam’s own words “This is a Multiplayer-only version of Black Ops III that has limited content”. The limited content they are referring to is the entire removal of two of the three game modes available in the full version of the game: the popular Zombie mode, and the less popular Campaign mode. If this was where the “limited content” stopped, this would be quite a viable option for gamers only interested in the Multiplayer aspect of Call of Duty: Black Ops III.
Sadly, Activision goes further, cutting into the only remaining game mode. Firstly Activision removed the ability to Prestige in multiplayer, taking away one of the staples of this game mode. Along with Prestige mode, custom games have been removed, meaning that you can’t start up a match between you and your friends. A few other features that will be made available to the owners of the full version of Black Ops III in the future has also been removed.
Most of the newly added features to the Call Of Duty series, such as Gunsmith, is available in this version, backing up the fact that this is nothing but a demo of the full game, allowing potential buyers to get a feel for the game before purchasing the real thing. However, buyers of this starter pack will have access to the Black Market, the RNG part of the game, allowing players to either tediously grind or spend real money on items used to open supply drops, rewarding the player with items otherwise unobtainable in the game. The fact that Activision has removed some of the core aspects of the game, yet left in the only other feature that has the potential to make money in the game, makes it seem that this “Starter Pack” is sadly just another method Activision has enforced to get the optimal amount of money from its community. Although you can upgrade your Starter Pack to the full version, you will still end up paying $5 more that if you bought the full version in the first place
Supply Drops initially started off as a way for people to get cosmetic only items for their gaming experience, rewarding players for time spent in-game. Naturally, soon after the release, payment options followed, allowing players who can afford it to gain these cosmetic items faster. However the fact remained that the items were purely cosmetic, not adding to the skill of the players that were able to buy them. Unfortunately, shortly before the release of the Black Ops III starter pack, Activision added entirely new weapons with different mechanics and different in-game statistics exclusive to Supply Drops relying on RNG. While this has split the community on whether Call of Duty is becoming Pay-to-Win, the fact remains that it is still very possible to obtain these new items without spending anything extra on the game. However, it is very clear that Activision is doing everything in their power to get players to spend extra money without their famous title being labeled Pay-to-Win and getting all the hate which goes along with it.
Activision isn’t the first company to do this. There are other games out there offering a “compact” version of the game for a lowered price. Games such as MotoGP has been doing this for quite a while. However, with Call of Duty’s massive fan base and its record breaking sales, this new method of selling a watered down version of a game will undoubtedly be picked up by more companies and will most likely soon become the norm, just like having to buy extra game content in the form of DLCs started off small and now almost every AAA game out there makes use of this method.
While the fact that this Starter Pack of Black Ops 3 is only $15 might compensate for its lack of features, what we all must remember is that not so long ago, these were known as demos. In a time with free indie games and Free-to-Play titles, there should be no place for paid demos. The fear that other companies will follow this trend is ever present and it’s a fear that might drive some people away from AAA gaming as a whole.